Tuesday 30 November 2010

Kerkük Vakfından Güzide bir kitap “Nedime Hürmüzlü & Şirin Köyüm Tirkalan”



Konuk Yazar
– 30 Kasım 2010

Bir makalemde “Türkiye’de yaşayan Irak kökenli Türkmen kadın edebiyatçılarının sayısı ve edebi ürünleri, Türkmen erkek edebiyatçılara göre nispeten az olsa da, onlar kadar iddialılar. Demiştim. Ve göğsümü gere gere Türkmeneli şair i Nesrin Erbil’i kanıt olarak sunmuştum, şimdi size yeni bir eseri tanıtarak ikinci bir kanıt daha sunmak istiyorum.

Kerkük Vakfı Sekreteri Prof. Dr. Suphi Saatçi tarafından hazırlanan bu önemli kanıt kitap orta boy (12×19.50) ebatlıdır. Kapağı karton, kuşe, iki renkli Türkuaz, açık mavi, ön kapakta kitabın ve şairin adı, resmi, arka kabakta ise araştırmacı yazarlar üstat Ata Terzibaşı ve Sancak’ın şair hakkında yazdıkları makalelerden alıntılar yer almaktadır, 85 sayfalık kitabın dili Türkçedir.
Kitabın dördüncü sayfasında yer verildiği gibi eser, Kerkük Vakfı Yayınları Nu: 44,Türkçe seri Nu:32, Türkmen yazarlar dizisi:3 kayda geçen bu kıymetli edebi kitabın ilk baskısı Ekim –2010’da olmuştur. Yedinci sayfada yer verilen “Önsöz” yine Saatçi tarafından kaleme alınmış İstanbul-Haziran 2010 tarihlidir.
Saatçi’nin vurgulu cümleleri şunlardır:
“Irak Türkmenleri zengin bir halk edebiyatı malzemesine sahiptir… Türkmen Türkçesi saf ve yalın biçimiyle ifade gücünü ve estetiğini yitirmemiştir… Elinizdeki kitapta yer alan şiirler, Okula gitmemiş Türkmen hanımı Nedime Hürmüzlü’ye aittir… Yakınları tarafından ağızdan banda kaydedilen, kimi zaman da kağıt ve defterlere yazılan bu şiirler tarafımıza tevdi edilmiştir”.
Şair Nedime Hürmüzlü’nun ön kapaktaki fotoğrafına kitabın sekizinci sayfasında net bir şekilde yer vermenin yanın da“Tirkâlan,1941- Kerkük,2 Mart 2010” tarihleri işaret edilmektedir..
Dokuzuncu sayfadaki “Giriş”te yer alan kimi manidar cümleler: “ Irak’taki Türkmen edebiyatçılarının arasında kadın halk şairi olarak ilgi çeken önemli bir isim de, son yıllarda keşfedilen Nedime Hürmüzlü’dür…şair olarak ismini ilk kez Erşat Hürmüzlü’den duymuştum…Kerkük’te, Erşat Hürmüzlü ile birlikte ziyaret etmiş ve kendisiyle tanışmıştım…Nedime hanım oldukça doğal ve akıcı bir dille dörtlükler söylüyordu.. halk ağzındaki şiirleri bizzat kendisinden dinlemek bizleri mest etmişti”.

Nedime Hanımın sosyal hayatı ve edebi hayatı hakkında geniş bilgi ve fotoğraflar elde eden Saatçi, bu bilgileri birkaç başlık altında okuyucularına sunmuştur. Şöyle ki: “Hayatı, 11-14 sayfalar”, “Nedime ve Ümmilik 15-16 sayfa”, “Nedime ve Tirkâlan,17. sayfa”, “Yaşadığı Coğrafyaya Tutkun Bir Şair, 18-21 sayfalar ”, “ Nedime’nin Dili, Sözü, Sohbeti ve Şiiri, 22-26 sayfalar”.

Saatçi bu sayfalarda şair Nedime’den övgüyle söz ediyor zaman zaman bu övgülere layık olan Nedime’nin şiirlerine yer veriyor. Zaman zaman Nedime Hanımın oldukça dertli hikâyesini, sürgün hayatını, ölümcül hastalığını esefle anlatıyor ve sözün bittiği yerde Şair Nedime hakkında şu cümlelere yer veriyor: “ Uzun yıllar oturdukları, yani baba ve dede ocağı olan evleri, köyleri yerle bir olmuştu.. Türkmeneli’nin edebiyatı ve şiir dünyası onun mektebi ve beslendiği kültür kaynağı olmuştu.. “Vatan Sevgisi” başlıklı şiirini okurken, Nedime’nin, Türkmenlerin seçkin edebiyatçılarına karşı beslediği sevgi ve saygıyı dile getirdiği görülüyor.

Suphi hoca, yazısının son paragrafında Nedime’nin şairliği hakkında şöyle diyor: “Bu tarz şiirlerinde başarılı olmasının başlıca sebebi, bu dile doğal biçimde sahip olması, ayrıca yabancı kültürlerle teması bulunmamasına bağlanabilir”. Saatçi son cümlesiyle, üstat Ata Terzibaşı’nın “ Ûmmi Nedime Hürmüzlü mekan ve zamanın gereği okula hiç gitmemiştir. İyi ki gitmemiş, yoksa yerli, arî dili öz çığırından çıkar külfetli bir hal alırdı” şeklindeki değerlendirmesini teyit etmiştir.
Kitapta 27. Sayfada “Kaynaklar” 30.Sayfadan itibaren şiirlere yer verilmiştir.

Bu eseri meydana çıkara kıymetli hocamız prof. Dr. Suphi Saatçi’ye teşekkürlerimizi sunarken şiirler bölümündeki kimi gözden kaçan aksaklıklara da yer vermek istiyorum. Umarım bu işgüzarlığım hocamız tarafından hoş karşılanır:

1. 48. Sayfada yer alan 14 başlıklı şiirdeki ilk üç dörtlükler, son üç dörtlüklerle alakasız görünmektedir. Zira ilk üç dörtlükler birbirinden bağımsız olmakta, oysa son üç dörtlüklerin son mısraları “Ağlama gönül biter bugünler” şeklinde rediflidir.
2. Yine 48. Sayfada yer alan 14 başlıklı şiirin ilk üç dörtlüklerin tekrarı, 70. Sayfada başka bir sıralama ve düzenekle yer verilmektedir. Yine aynı şekilde son üç dörtlüklerin tekrarı, 69. Sayfada yer verilmiştir.
3. 48. Sayfada yer alan “Ağlama gönül biter bu günler” redifli mısralar, 69. Sayfadaki aynı şiirin son iki dörtlüğü “Ağlama gönül gider bu günler” şeklindedir. “gider bugünler” yahut “biter bugünler” manen aynı olsa da farklılık yaratmaktadır.
4. “Ağlama gönül gider bu günler” redifli şiirine benzer aynı redifli başka bir dörtlük de 71. Sayfadaki 26 başlıklı şiirin sonunda yer almaktadır.
5. Yine 49. Sayfada yer alan her iki dörtlük 69. Sayfada tekrarlanmıştır
6. Söz konusu dörtlüklerdeki vezin aksaklıkları şiirin ahengini bozmaktadır. Bu oldukça gerçek trajedi şiirlerin tekrarları “Mizahi Şiirler” bölümünde yayımlanması ayrı bir sorun yaratmaktadır.
7. Bu tekrarların bir benzeri de 79. Sayfada yer alan “Maniler” bölümünde de görülmektedir. Nitekim “Saqı boş bada vermez” Qomşum oldu Ermeni” başlıklı dörtlükler 82. Sayfa da aynen tekrarlanmıştır.

Suphi Hocanın değindiği gibi “Şirin Köyüm Tirkalan” adlı kitapta yer alan eserler, Türkmeneli kadın edebiyatçılarından halk şairi Nedime Hürmüzlünün kâh ses kayıtlarından kâh yakın akrabaları tarafından not edilen şiirlerden elde edilmiştir. Yukarıda sıraladım aksaklıklarda sanırım bu alıntı şeklinden mütevellidir. Farklı zaman ve mekân kayıtlardan alınmış olmalı ki farklı şiirlermiş gibi kitap’ta yer edinmiştir. Her halükarda bu değerli kitabı Türkmeneli’ne Türk dünyasına sunduğu için başta kıymetli hocamıza ve de Kerkük Vakfı’nın emektarlarına binlerce teşekkürü bir borç bilirim.

Cengiz Bayraktar-İzmit - Kerkük Feneri

Musul ve Kerkük'ün tapu bilgisi Ankara'da





Bayındırlık ve İskan Bakanlığı, Musul ve Kerkük tapu bilgileriyle ilgili Osmanlı dönemine dair kayıtların Tapu ve Kadastro Genel Müdürlüğü arşivlerinde bulunduğunu bildirdi.
Bayındırlık ve İskan Bakanlığı'ndan yapılan yazılı açıklamada, önceki gün bir gazetede yayımlanan "Musul-Kerkük'te Tapu Harekatı" başlıklı haberde "Türkiye'nin ABD işgalinden önce Irak'ta müthiş bir operasyon yaptığı, Türkmen ve Arap tapularının Ankara'ya getirildiği" şeklinde ifadelerin yer aldığı belirtildi.Açıklamada, Bakan Mustafa Demir'in söz konusu bölgelere yaptığı ziyarette, Tapu ve Kadastro Genel Müdürlüğüne ait arşivlerle ilgili yapılan çalışmalar hakkında bilgi verdiği, bu arşivler arasında 23 yabancı ülkenin mülkiyet kayıtlarının da bulunduğunu söylediği kaydedildi.

Söz konusu ziyarette Tapu ve Kadastro Genel Müdürlüğü bünyesinde yürütülen Tapu Arşivleri Bilgi Sistemi (TARBİS) projesini anlatan Demir'in, arşivdeki tüm kayıtların dijital ortama aktarıldığını ve zarar görmüş evrakların da büyük bir titizlikle onarıldığını ifade ettiği belirtilerek, şöyle denildi:"23 yabancı ülkenin zaman zaman resmi yazışmalarla ülkelerine dair bazı bilgiler talep ettiklerini de ifade eden sayın Bakanımıza Musul-Kerkük'te 2003'te meydana gelen nüfus ve tapu müdürlüklerine yapılan saldırılar sorulmuş, sayın Bakanımız da o bölgeyle ilgili Osmanlı dönemine dair kayıtlarının tapu arşivinde bulunduğunu, dolayısıyla Musul-Kerkük'te tapu ve nüfus müdürlüklerine yapılan saldırılarla bu kayıtların yok edilmesinin mümkün olmadığını ifade etmiştir. Bunun dışında sürdürülmüş 'operasyon' veya buna benzer, iki ülke arasındaki resmi işlemlerin dışında herhangi bir işlem yapılmamıştır."

CNN TÜRK

Sunday 28 November 2010

Human Rights Situation of Iraqi Turkmen

To everyone in the UK who feels concerned with the Human Rights Situation in Iraq

Please ask your MP to sign the Early Day Motion EDM968 – Human Rights Situation Of Iraqi Turkmen

See:

http://www.edms.org.uk/edms/2010-2011/968.htm

Early Day Motions
EDM968 – Human Rights Situation Of Iraqi Turkmen
http://www.edms.org.uk/edms/2010-2011/968.htm

Proposed by Mike Hancock on 08/11/2010.
Categorised under the topic of Human rights.

That this House is concerned about the human rights situation of the Iraqi Turkmens, the third largest ethnic group in Iraq, who mainly live in the northern provinces, such as Kirkuk; condemns the ethnic cleansing and assimilation policy of Iraqi Turkmens by both Saddam Hussein’s government until 2003 andthe Kurds since 2003, who claim the Iraqi Turkmens’ lands which are rich with oil, gas sulphur, uranium and phosphorus; notes that the census in Iraq delayed for the third time since 2007 is now due to be held on 5 December 2010; worries that the inclusion of the questions on ethnicity and mother tongue in the census will divide Iraqi people instead of uniting them and might create new outbreaks of violence in this country; further condemns the treatment of the Iraqi Turkmens as the lower class in Iraq in comparison with the Arabs and Kurds; believes all ethnicities in Iraq should possess equal rights; welcomes the work of the Iraqi Turkmen Front to promote the human rights of Iraqi Turkmens such as the right to participate in the forming of the new government and the right to have justice, equality, fairness andan end to the discrimination and violence; and calls on the Prime Minister and the Government to raise the issue of Iraqi Turkmens’ human rights with the government of Iraq.

Friday 26 November 2010

Musul ve Kerkük'te 2003'te yağmalanan tapu dairelerindeki Türkler'e ait kayıtların, daha önce 'kopyalanıp' Türkiye'ye getirildiği ortaya çıktı.

Bakan Demir: Belgelerin hepsi elimizde Irak savaşı sırasında Kerkük ve Musul'da da büyük bir yağma yaşanmıştı. Irak birliklerinin geri çekilmesini fırsat bilen peşmergeler 10-11 Nisan 2003 tarihlerinde önce Kerkük, sonra Musul'da devlet dairelerine girdiler.

Televizyonların görüntülerine yansıyan yağmanın adresi tapu ve nüfus idareleriydi. Türkmenlere ve Araplara ait kayıtlar büyük ölçüde zarar gördü. Tapular çalınarak ya da yakılarak ortadan kaldırıldı. Bu girişim, bölgenin Türkmen ve Araplardan arındırılması için bir altyapı hazırlama çabası olarak değerlendirildi. Türkmenler, gayrimenkullerini, topraklarını kaybetme tehlikesiyle karşı karşıya kaldı. Dün Ankara'da Turkuvaz Medya Grubu'nun kahvaltısına konuk olan Bayındırlık ve İskan Bakanı Mustafa Demir, bu konuda çok önemli bir bilgiyi açıkladı.

Demir "savaştan önce Türkler gitti, Musul ve Kerkük'teki tüm tapu bilgilerini çıkarıp Türkiye'ye getirdi. Hepsi elimizde" dedi. Peki bu büyük operasyonu Türkiye nasıl gerçekleştirdi?

Edindiğimiz bilgilere göre, daha körfez savaşından önce Süleymaniye'de konuşlanmış olan Türk güvenlik birimleri ve görevliler, ileride oluşabilecek her türlü tehlike ve tehdide karşı gerekli çalışmaları yaptılar. Tapu ve nüfus idarelerinin yağmalanacağına ilişkin istihbarat da, eylem gerçekleşmeden çok önce alındı. ...

Ve istihbaratın gereği yapıldı: Türk görevliler, Türkmenlerin Musul ve Kerkük'teki tüm tapu kayıtlarını kopyalayarak Türkiye'ye ulaştırdılar... Böylece Türkmen nüfusun gayrimenkulleri güvence altına alınmış oldu. Türkiye sadece Musul ve Kerkük'teki Türklerin mal varlıklarını güvence altına almakla kalmadı, Osmanlı coğrafyasındaki diğer tapuları da gözden geçirmeye başladı. Bayındırlık Bakanı Demir, Osmanlı döneminden kalma 23 ülkeye ait tapu kayıtlarının çıkarıldığını, sayfa sayfa temizlenip hem mikro filme, hem de dijital ortama aktarıldığını söyledi.

Demir, kayıtları Osmanlıcadan Türkçeye çevirme işlemlerinin de tamamlandığına dikkat çekti. Bu çalışmaların sonucunda ne mi oldu? Tam 9 bin cilt dolusu Osmanlı tapu kaydı temizlendi. ...Ve Bayındırlık Bakanlığı arşivlerinde koruma altına alındı.

http://www.ihlassondakika.com/haberdetay.php?id=331409

Wednesday 17 November 2010

استقبال المهنئين بعيد الأضحى في الجبهة التركمانية العراقية



ITC MEDIA
كركوك
الأربعاء 17 تشرين الثاني 2010

استقبال المهنئين بعيد الأضحى في الجبهة التركمانية العراقية



احتفل التركمان في كركوك و جميع مدن و بلدات و قصبات توركمن ايلي بعيد الأضحى المبارك حيث استقبلت الجبهة التركمانية العراقية المهنئين بهذه المناسبة في يوم الأربعاء 17 تشرين الثاني 2010 في رئاسة الجبهة التركمانية العراقية بكركوك و كان في استقبالهم الدكتور سعد الدين أركيج رئيس الجبهة التركمانية العراقية
و عدد من ألأعضاء التركمان في مجلس النواب العراقي،الأستاذ أرشد الصالحي والآنسة جالة نفطجي و عدد من أعضاء الهيئة التنفيذية للجبهة
و حضر الاحتفالية عدد من رؤساء و ممثلي الأحزاب التركمانية و العراقية و قادة و ضباط الشرطة و الجيش و عدد من أعضاء الكتلة التركمانية في مجلسي محافظة و قضاء كركوك و منتسبي بعض الدوائر الحكومية و منظمات المجتمع المدني و فروع و مكاتب الجبهة و عدد من رجال الدين و الشخصيات و الوجهاء و العوائل من مختلف مناطق توركمن ايلي و جمع غفير من المواطنين



الجبهة التركمانية العراقية
الدائرة الإعلامية

Saturday 13 November 2010

Jalal Talabani will attend a meeting with Martine Aubry and Ehoud Barak in Paris next week

Jalal Talabani, President of the Republic of Iraq and Vice-President of International Socialist (IS) will be in Paris next Monday and Tuesday to meet with Martine Aubry, First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he will attend a meeting in which Ehoud Barak, Israeli Defence minister will also take part.

See: George Malbrunot’s article : The International Socialist confronted with the Tariq Aziz case

L'Internationale socialiste face au cas Tareq Aziz

Et si le sort de Tareq Aziz, condamné à mort par la justice irakienne, reposait entre les mains de Martine Aubry? La première secrétaire du Parti socialiste recevra, lundi et mardi prochains à Paris, Jalal Talabani, président de la République d'Irak et vice-président de l'Internationale socialiste (IS), pour une réunion à laquelle participeront également le premier ministre grec, Georges Papandréou, et Ehoud Barak, le ministre israélien de la Défense.

http://blog.lefigaro.fr/malbrunot/2010/11/linternationale-socialiste-fac.html

Friday 12 November 2010

Milli Mücadele(13) Yolunda Mustafa KEMAL Yaycılı



Milli Mücadele(13) Yolunda
Mustafa KEMAL Yaycılı
Yazan: Sadun KÖPRÜLÜ

Milli Mücadele yolunda uzun yıllardan beri çalışan, yorulan kan kardeşlerimiz yaşamlarını, kendilerini, ailelerini, çıkarlarını düşünmeden kendilerini bu dava yoluna adayarak şirin canlarını, temiz kanlarını hiçbir karşılık düşünmeden seve, seve vermişlerdir uzun yıllat milli dava yolunda çalışanları, yorulanları kutsal görevlerini başararak şehit düşenlerimiz, acı, çile, baskı ve hapis yatanları ve ölenlerimizi, yaşayanlarımız hiç birini unutmadan sırasıyla elimizde olan bilgileri değerlendirmekle yazacağız umudumuz kardeşlerimizden bize yardımcı olsunlar azda olursa Milli Mücadele yolunda şehitlerimizin, tüm Mücadeleci dava adamları hakkında bizlere yazsınlar bilgi göndersinler onları değerlendirelim.

Şehidimiz Mustafa Kemal Yaycılı büyük bir mücadeleci Türkmen dava adamıdır, yıllardan beri milli Türkmencilik davasına katılarak uzun yıllardan bu milli şuur yolunda tüm varlığını adayan bir kahraman yiğidimizdir, onun milli davası gökyüzümüzde bir altın ışık olarak, yollarımızı aydınlatacaktır.

Mustafa Kemal hiçbir zaman ölümü düşünmedi, hiçbir zaman yolundan milli davasından yüce Türkmen milletinden vazgeçmedi, gece gündüz yorgunluk bilmeden çalıştı durdu, ben onu uzun yıllardan beri hapishanede olduğum sıralardan tanımaktayım, Erbil Türkmen şehrinde uzun çalışma mücadelesi ile ilk defa olarak dava arkadaşları ile Türkçe okullar açmıştır, Türk diliyle eğitim başlatmıştır.

Uzun yıllar Milli Türkmen partisinde çalışarak, parti başkan olmuştur.

Erbil Türkmen şehrinde ilk önce Doğuş okulunu sonradan Türkçe okulların açmasında büyük katkısı olmuştur, bunun yanında İlk defa olarak Türkmeneli gazetesi ve Doğuş gazetesini yayınlamıştır.

Ana muhalefetin Amerika, İngiltere, Irak’ta tüm toplantılarına katılarak Türkmen milletinin haklarının verilmesini istemiştir, şehidimiz Yaycılı birçok siyası seminer düzenlemiştir, Türkmen sorumuna yakından bir çözüm bulmaya yıllarını vermiştir.

Şehit Mustafa Kemal Saddam rejimi düştükten sonra hiç beklemeden hızla dava arkadaşları Necmettin Kasap, Sabah Aziz, Adnan Gıdan, Abbas Kasap, Abbas Dakuklu, Behaddin Türkmen ve birçoğuyla Kerkük’e dönmeye karar vermiştir, Kerkük’te her bir yanda dava arkadaşlarıyla Irak Türkmen Cephesi ve Türkmen milli bayrağını her bir yere asmışlardır, Kerkük meclisinde Türkmenlere hak kazandırmak için durmadan yorularak çabalar göstermiştir.

Türkmen milleti uğrunda çalışmalar karşı taraf düşmanlarda rahatsız olmuşlardır, artık onu nasıl ortadan kaldıracaklar planlar başlatmışlardı, bir iki defa ölümden şehidimiz kurtararak, ama düşman hiçbir zaman uyuyamadı onu bir gün önce ortalıktan kaldırmasalar başlarının belası olacağını düşünerek, namertçesine planlar çizmeye başladır, ve kahraman yiğidimizi Dava arkadaşı şehit Fazıl Namık ile birlikte şehit ettiler.

Ama bunu iyice düşmanlar bilmediler ki bu büyük millet her zaman gözünü açınca binlerce Necdetler Koçaklar, Albay Abdullahlar, Rıza Demirciler, Adıl Şerifler, Mehmet Korkmazlar, Rüştüler, Salıhıler, Celil, Kemal Terziler, Mustafa Kemalleri ve başkalarını yitirmiştir ve yetirmektedir.

Şehidimiz Mustafa Kemal Yaycılı 1955 yılında dünyaya Kerkük Yaycı köyünde göz açmıştır, ilkokulu, ortaokulu merkeziye okulunda, liseyi Kerkük’te okumuştur şehidimiz lise döneminde arkadaşları ile birlikte politika alanına atılarak, yoğun olarak çalışmaya başlamışlardır.

Eski Saddam rejimine karşı birçok siyası eylemlerde önde olarak, milliyetçi Türkmen davasıyla ilgilenerek, korku bilmeden yardım göstermiştir.

Mustafa Kemal , Eğitimini Türkiye’de sürdürmeye hızla yaklaşarak, Milli mücadeleyi tüm varlığıyla başlatarak Saddam rejimi tarafından defalarca tehdit baskıya maruz kalmıştır.

Mustafa Kemal, 1975 yılında Üniversiteyi Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi İnşaat Fakültesinden mezun olarak İstanbul İktisadi Ticari ilimler Akademisi İşletme Fakültesinden lisansüstü eğitim almıştı.

Mustafa Kemal 1987 – 1991 yıllar arası Irak Türkmen Kültür ve Yardımlaşma derneğinde görev almıştır 1991 -1996 yılları Kuzey Irak’ta Irak Milli Türkmen Partisinde çeşitli görevlerde bulunmuştur. Yaycılı 1995 yılında ilk defa kurulan Irak Türkmen Cephesi yönetim kurulu üyesi olmuştur.
18 – 20 Ağustos 1966 da Irak Milli Türkmen partisi Erbil’de yapılan ikinci genel
kurultayında Parti Genel Başkanı seçilmiştir.
1997 Ekimde düzenlenen ilk Türkmen Kurultayında vekâleten başkanlığı yürütmüştür, ayrıca Londra’da Irak Türkmen Cephesi temsilciliğini yapmıştır.
Mustafa Kemal 2002 Aralık ayında Londra’da düzenlenen Iraklı muhalefetin toplantısına Türkmen delegeleri arasında yer almıştır.
2002 Ocak ayında Kuzey Irak’ta yapılan Irak Türkmen Cephesinin üçüncü genel kurulunda ise partinin onursal başkanı olmuştur.

Mustafa Kemal canını kanını bu milli Türkçülük davasına vererek, milletimizin milli haklarını yıllar boyunca korumakla Saddam rejimi düştükten hemen sonra durmadan beklemeden tüm dava kan kardeşlerini toplayarak, milli Türkmen haklarını savunmak üzere Kerkük Türkmen şehrine girmiştir her bir yere milli Türkmen bayrağını Irak Türkmen Cephesinin bayrağını asarak Türkmenlerin haklarını elde etmek için tüm yorgunluk çalışmalara katılmıştır.

Yaycılı, Türkmenleri her bir yerde savunarak Kerkük Valilik Meclisinden yaşananları protesto etmek için Meclisten çekilmiştir. bunun yanında Araplarda onu desteklemekle, yardımcı olmuşlardır, Protesto sonucu –sözde- Mecliste iki Türkmen’e üyelik verilmiştir.
Kazanmıştır.

Mustafa Kemal, şehit olmadan birkaç ay önce Irak Milli Türkmen Partisi Genel Başkanı seçilmişti. Şehidimiz Yaycılı, 15 Mayıs 2004 Cumartesi, Saat 11-00 Kerkük’ün Tuzhurmatu kesiminde çapraz ateşle yapılan bir saldırı sonucu, dava arkadaşı Fazıl Namık ile birlikte şehit edilmiştir. Ayrıca dava arkadaşı Necmettin kasap yaralanmıştır.

Şehidimizi hiçbir zaman büyük Türk Milleti unutmayacaktır, yeni kuşaklarımız atılgan erlerimiz hep Türkçülük davasıyla yollarını aydınlatacaklardır.

Onların bu kutsal davaları sonsuza dek sürecektir, yeni ışıkları parlak umutlu günleri doğdurmak için, aydınlatmak için Artık Mustafa Kemal’lerin Türklük Bayrağını Kerkük, Erbil, Altunköprü, Musul, Tuzhurmatu, Mendili, Hanekın, Aziziye, tüm Türkmeneli yerlerinde topraklarında yiğit erlerimiz, gençlerimiz taşımaya devam edeceklerdir.

ORSAM Rapor 21: 2003 Sonrası Irak'tan Komşu Ülkelere ve Türkiye'ye Yönelik Göçler




ORSAM Rapor 21: 2003 Sonrası Irak'tan Komşu Ülkelere ve Türkiye'ye Yönelik Göçler


Irak'ta 1991'den beri sürmekte olan şiddet ve istikrarsızlık ortamı dört milyondan fazla kişinin ülke dışına göç etmesine, bir o kadar kişinin de ülke içinde yer değiştirmek zorunda kalmasına yol açtı. 1991'deki büyük iltica hareketinden beri Türkiye'ye yönelik devam etmekte olan bir göç hareketi olduğu bilinmektedir. Bu raporda, Iraklıların göç etmesine neden olan koşullar, göçün farklı dönemlerde aldığı şekiller ve Türkiye'de bulunan Iraklıların yasal statüleri ve sosyo-ekonomik durumlarına değindikten sonra, ilgili kurumlarla ilişkilerini inceleyeceğiz.

devamı »»



http://www.orsam.org.tr/tr/yazigoster.aspx?ID=1281

Kadro Belli Oldu

"Mutabakatımız oradan buradan topladığımız otomobil parçalarını birleştirip çalışacağını ummaya benziyor." Görüşmelerde rol oynayan Kürt milletvekili Mahmud Osman


12 Kasım 2010, Cuma.


Irak’ta hükümet kurma çalışmaları dün tamamlandı. Kürtler cumhurbaşkanlığını, Şiiler başbakanlığı, Sünniler meclis başkanlığını aldı



Irak'ta mart ayında yapılan seçimlerin ardından hükümetin kurulması için anlaşma sonunda tamamlandı. ABD, Türkiye ve Suudi Arabistan da dahil birçok ülkenin müdahalesiyle şekillenen hükümetin kurulması için ilk adım dün akşam meclis başkanın seçilmesiyle atıldı. Dini mezheplerin politikanın şekillenmesinde büyük rol oynadığı ülkede, seçimlerden Şii lider Nuri El Maliki'nin grubu 89 sandalye, İyad Allavi'nin Sünni grubu Irakiye Listesi ise 91 sandalye alarak çıkmıştı. Hükümeti kurmayı 8 ay boyunca başaramayan taraflar Irakiye Listesi'nin El Maliki'nin başbakanlığında hükümete katılmayı kabul etmesinin ardından kurulabildi.

Sünniler için yeni konsey kuruldu
Kuzey Irak'ta geçen hafta Mesud Barzani'nin teşvikiyle başlayan görüşmeler pazartesi günü Bağdat'a taşındı. Hükümetin son haliyle ilgili karar çarşamba günü 7 saat süren görüşmelerin ardından verildi. Tarafların anlaşmasına göre, Kürt lider Celal Talabani cumhurbaşkanlığı görevine devam edecek. Nuri El Maliki başbakan olacak. Ancak İran'ın da desteklediği Şii liderin yetkilerini dengelemek için Irakiye Listesi'ne de çeşitli görevler verilecek. Bunun sağlanabilmesi için "Stratejik Politika Konseyi" adında bir kurul kurularak başına İyad Allavi getirildi. Musul'un en güçlü ismi olan Usame Nuceyfi Meclis Başkanlığı'na, Celal Talabani de Cumhurbaşkanlığı'na seçildi. Bunun ardından Talabani Maliki'yi yeni hükümeti kurmakla görevlendirdi. Böylece ABD, Türkiye, Suudi Arabistan ve Ürdün'ün desteklediği Sünni grup başbakanlığı alamadı, ancak önemli görevlere getirildi.

Amerikalıların istediği olmadı


Dışişleri Bakanı Ahmet Davutoğlu dün, "En kısa zamanda dost ve kardeş Irak 'ın siyasi istikrar ve güçlü bir hükümete kavuşacağını ümit ediyoruz" dedi. Beyaz Saray da gelişmelerin ardından bir açıklama yaparak, hükümette bütün siyasi grupların temsil edileceği bir anlaşmaya varılmasından memnuniyet duyduğunu belirtti. Ancak anlaşma sağlandığı haberlerinin ardından uzmanlar bu anlaşmayla birlikte ABD'nin ülkedeki siyasi etkisinin iyice azalacağı yorumlarını yaptı. Independent gazetesine göre, ABD, İyad Allavi'nin cumhurbaşkanı olmasını istiyordu. Hatta ABD Başkan Yardımcısı Joe Biden Kürtleri cumhurbaşkanlığından vazgeçirmek için büyük çaba sarf etti. Hatta ABD Başkanı Barack Obama da geçen hafta telefonla devreye girdi. Ancak Kürtler ikna olmadı.

Dengeleri İran'ın adamı değiştirdi


Ekim ayında İran'ın desteklediği ABD düşmanı Şii lider Mukteda El Sadr'ın meclisteki 40 milletvekiliyle Maliki'ye destek vermesinin ardından Allavi'nin başbakan olamayacağı anlaşıldı. Sonuçta ABD'nin arzu ettiğinden farklı bir tablo ortaya çıktı. Muktada El Sadr'ın Maliki'ye destek vermesinin ardında İran'ın parmağı olduğu yorumları yapılıyor.

"Mutabakatımız oradan buradan topladığımız otomobil parçalarını birleştirip çalışacağını ummaya benziyor." Görüşmelerde rol oynayan Kürt milletvekili Mahmud Osman

İyad Allavi (65)"
Laik Şii" olarak tanımlanan Allavi, 2004-2005 geçici hükümetin başbakanıydı. İran'ın Irak yönetiminde söz sahibi olmasına karşı çıkıyor. Allavi'nin Irakiye Listesi, seçimde Sünnilerin de desteğini aldı.

Nuri El Maliki (60)
Hukuk Devleti Partisi'nin lideri olan Şii politikacı Maliki, önceki hükümetin de başbakanıydı. İran'a yakınlığıyla bilinen Maliki, İran Cumhurbaşkanı Mahmud Ahmedinecad'la bir görüşmesinde İran geleneklerine uyarak kravat takmadığı gerekçesiyle de eleştirilmişti.

Celal Talabani (77)
13 yaşındayken, Kürdistan Demokratik Partisi'ne (KDP) girdi. 1975'te kendi partisi, Kürdistan Yurtseverler Birliği'ni (KYB) kurdu ve KDP?ile büyük bir çatışma içine girdi. Talabani, 2005'te, ülkenin 50 yıldan uzun süredir seçimle işbaşına gelen ilk cumhurbaşkanı oldu.

Usame Nuceyfi (74)
Meclis Başkanı seçilen Sünni Arap politikacı, Irakiye Listesi üyesi. Musullu Nuceyfi, Kuzey Irak'ta Kürtlerin hak iddia ettiği bölgelerin merkezi yönetime bağlı kalmasını savunduğu için Kürtleri kızdırmıştı.

Mukteda El Sadr (37)
Radikal Şii din adamı Sadr, ülkenin en etkili dini figürlerinden biri. Siyasi parti yöneticisi olmasa da, taraftarları Irak Milli İttifakı'nda yer alıyor. Sadr'ın Mehdi Ordusu, işgalcilerle savaşmış, ancak 2007'de ateşkes ilan etmişti.

Mesud Barzani (64)
Kürdistan Demokratik Partisi (KDP) lideri olan Barzani, Kuzey Irak Bölgesel Yönetimi'nin de başkanlığını yapıyor. Irak'ta hükümet kurma görüşmelerinin son aşamaları Barzani'nin evinde yapıldı. Laik ve Batı yanlısı bir politikacı.

Thursday 11 November 2010

UK Parliament Early Day Motion - HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION OF IRAQI TURKMEN

UK Parliament Early Day Motion - HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION OF IRAQI TURKMEN
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=41957


Early Day Motion
EDM 968

HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION OF IRAQI TURKMEN
08.11.2010

Hancock, Mike

That this House is concerned about the human rights situation of the Iraqi Turkmen, the third largest ethnic group in Iraq, who mainly live in the northern provinces, such as Kirkuk; condemns the ethnic cleansing and assimilation policy of Iraqi Turkmen by both Saddam Hussein's government until 2003 andthe Kurds since 2003, who claim the Iraqi Turkmen lands which are rich with oil, gas sulphur, uranium and phosphorus; notes that the census in Iraq delayed for the third time since 2007 is now due to be held on 5 December 2010; worries that the inclusion of the questions on ethnicity and mother tongue in the census will divide Iraqi people instead of uniting them and might create new outbreaks of violence in this country; further condemns the treatment of the Iraqi Turkmen as the lower class in Iraq in comparison with the Arabs and Kurds; believes all ethnicities in Iraq should possess equal rights; welcomes the work of the Iraqi Turkmen Front to promote the human rights of Iraqi Turkmen such as the right to participate in the forming of the new government and the right to have justice, equality, fairness andan end to the discrimination and violence; and calls on the Prime Minister and the Government to raise the issue of Iraqi Turkmens' human rights with the government of Iraq.

Erşat Hürmüzlü, key Advisor to the President of the Republic of Turkey, visited Iraqi Turkmen Front Turkey Representation

11 November 2010, Thursday.


Mr.Erşat, who was welcomed by Iraq Turkmen Front Turkey Representative, Dr. Hicran Kazancı, spoke to Turkmeneli Television.

Key Advisor to the President of the Republic of Turkey Erşat Hürmüzlü visited Iraq Turkmen Front Turkey Representation. Mr.Erşat, who was welcomed by Iraq Turkmen Front Turkey Representative, Dr. Hicran Kazancı, said he was reciprocating a visit. Iraq Turkmen Front Turkey Representative Dr. Hicran Kazancı said, "Our struggle is for Turkmeneli; with the help of the Almighty and the support of our elders we will succeed ".

The situation in Iraq and Turkmeneli were discussed at the meeting. Mr.Hürmüzlü wished all to go well and said, "The Republic of Turkey will never give up its support ". During this special visit Mr. Hürmüzlü spoke to Turkmeneli Television as well, saying "Our hope is that the new government is established in such a way that it encompasses every sector in peace ".

At the end of the meeting, Dr.Kazancı thanked Mr. Hürmüzlü for his visit and said, "These visits increase our self confidence in our efforts; you have honored us with your visit ".

Kerkuk.net

Tuesday 9 November 2010

بيان المجموعة النيابية للجبهة التركمانية العراقية

بيان المجموعة النيابية للجبهة التركمانية العراقية


بيان

كما هو معلوم لدى الجميع بأن الشعب العراقي هو نسيج متشابك عن مجموعة من القوميات والطوائف وأن الشعب التركماني يمثل اللون الزاهي الوطني والرابط القوي لهذا النسيج من حيث تمثيله الركن الثالث من أركان الشعب العراقي حيث أن هذه القومية قد نالت النصيب الأكبر من الظلم والقهر خلال العهود السابقة من تاريخ الدولة العراقية لأسباب قومية تارة ومذهبية تارة أخرى ورغم كل ذلك فإن التاريخ العراقي يشهد بالمواقف الوطنية الصادقة والثابتة لأبناء هذا الشعب
وبما أن الكتل السياسية قد وصلت إلى المراحل النهائية من تشكيل الحكومة العراقية وتقاسم السلطات التي بنيت على أساس الشراكة الوطنية والإستحقاق القومي في آن واحد
لذا فإننا نطالب قادة الكتل السياسية للعمل الجدي لمنح أبناء الشعب التركماني إستحقاقهم القومي بمنصب رئيس مجلس النواب العراقي طالما أن تقسيم المناصب أصبح حسب الإستحقاق القومي للمناصب الرئيسية الثلاث خاصة وإن أعضاء مجلس النواب التركمان يتوزعون في جميع القوائم الفائزة ولهم الثقل الكبير في إئتلاف العراقية


المجموعة النيابية
للجبهة التركمانية العراقية
8/11/2010
http://www.bizturkmeniz.com/ar/showArticle.asp?id=20337

Monday 8 November 2010

Europeans and Americans buy land in Erbil

One Russian bought 20 plots of land and one American 30, to circumvent the law, they register these lands in the name of a Kurd

http://www.rudaw.nl/index.php/nieuws/algemeen/4490-europeanen-en-amerikanen-kopen-bouwgronden-in-hewler

Europeanen en Amerikanen kopen bouwgronden in Hewler

maandag, 08 november 2010 10:54 Rudaw.NL

Hewler, 8 november 2010 – Makelaar bureaus voor bouwgronden en huizen in Hewler (Erbil), in het zuiden van Koerdistan (Irak), zeggen dat Europeanen en Amerikanen massaal bouwgrond kopen in de stad.

De bouwgrond zetten de buitenlanders op naam van een Koerd, omdat ze volgens de regels van de Koerdistan Regio (Irak) enkel één grond op hun naam mogen zetten. Baxtiar Abdullah, eigenaar van één van die makelaar bureaus, zegt dat hij laatst “een Amerikaan, Rus en een Koerd op zijn kantoor heeft ontvangen. Ze kochten meerdere bouwgronden in en zetten deze allemaal op naam van de Koerd. De Rus kocht 20 stukken bouwgrond in en de Amerikaan 30 stuks. Ik weet niet wat ze met de grond willen doen maar de buitenlanders hebben betaald”.
Luqman Umer, algemeen beheerder voor het registreren van bouwgronden in Hewler, zegt dat op basis van een wet ui 1971 in het Iraakse grondwet is het voor buitenlanders toegestaan om bouwgronden te kopen; mits de koper voldoet aan een aantal voorwaarden. Één van de voorwaarden is dat de koper afkomstig moet zijn uit een land waar het voor een Irakees ook toegestaan is om een bouwgrond te kopen.

Ziad Ahmed, eigenaar van een ander bureau, geeft ook aan dat hij de laatste tijd Amerikanen op zijn kantoor ontvangt die samen met een Koerd bouwgronden kopen. “Ze zetten de grond op naam van de Koerd. Ik weet niet wat ze met de grond willen doen”. De makelaars spreken van een trend. (Foto: Rudaw)
© Rudaw

Children of Terror: The Case of the PKK, by Sedat Laciner

http://www.turkishweekly.net/columnist/3388/children-of-terror-the-case-of-the-pkk.html



Wednesday, 3 November 2010

The number of children killed by PKK terrorist organization deliberately is more than 300 since 1984. Actually, we may add ‘stone or molotov cocktail-throwing children’ to the number of victims. The Turkish government has been making efforts to protect the terror victim children via the bills whereas the PKK do not abstain to push them in front of the police with stones and bombs.

In recent days a bomb aiming the police exploded in the hands of a kid, who was encouraged for terror attack by the PKK, and he was seriously injured.

We know that 90% of the PKK militants at the mountains consist of the children. Thousands of children between the ages of 12-18 are under arms for so-called Kurdish rights. The recent Ertugrul Mavioglu’s interview from Kandil endorses this claim. Mavioglu, journalist, says that “most of the militants are teenagers.” The photos from Kandil Mountain are the very evidence. The kids who are at the ages to be at high school or even primary school posed with weapons. The guy they ironically protect an old man, Murat Karayilan who is 60 years old as the other leader cadre of the PKK.

The leader cadre is quite healthy and not injured for years while the thousands of PKK children lost their lives in the armed conflicts. The militant children have a quite short life at the mountains; most of them die before the age of 25.

***The first salient thing for the visitors of the PKK camps is “child terrorists”. The Times correspondent Matthew McAllester who visited PKK camps in 2006 also made observations in the same way. He says PKK’s girl militants were 15 years old. He further writes that “Zilan, 15, may not be big enough for her uniform but she is ready to use her Kalashnikov against Turkey.”

Washington centered CDI similarly wrote that “In 1998, the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) was believed to have 3,000 child soldiers in its forces, more than 10 percent of which were girls. Reports indicate that the PKK has used children since 1994 and even developed a children’s battalion named Tabura Zaroken Sehit Agit.

A child as young as seven was reported in the PKK’s ranks.” (R. Stohl, CDI, 2002). According to P.W. Singer minimum 300 people out of 3,000 is only consisted of girls and age of children falls to 7 in child terrorists (P.W. Singer, Children at War, University of California, s. 19).


At the beginning of this year Berlignske Tidende from Denmark wrote that many children are hold in the camps and this is children rights violation. Then UNICEF investigated the subject.

PKK Kidnaps Children for Terror

A father named Zulkuf K. who lives in Belgium’s Anvers city applied to the Belgium police asserting that his 15 year old son whom he could not get any information for 3 months is abducted by the PKK. Authorities determined that his son is abducted to Northern Iraq, firstly given a ‘physiological training’ (obviously brain washing) then taken to the armed military training. Father is desperate because he knows that Belgium police would not do anything.

According to the UN Reports Zulkuf K. is not the only one. There are many families like that. Hence according to some reports not only the Kurdish origin children but also the German families’ children are abducted by PKK.

Authorities say that the abducted children are not only used in terror events but they are also used in sabotage, seizure, and courier and in drug events.

Belgium Brussels ruler Patrick De Coster said that youths are forcefully brought to the terror camps by PKK after the PKK operations at the beginning of this year. P.W. Singer tells that Kurdish immigrant’s children in Europe are firstly taken to the so-called training camps in Sweden then recruited by the terror organization. 15 March 2006 dated SWD newspaper wrote that the teenagers at the age of 15-18 are abducted from European countries and they are brought to the terror camps in Northern Iraq.

According to the newspaper before the training the girls are exposed to torture and sexual abuse. It is possible to give numerous examples. Nevertheless there is no need to this while there are videos aired at the net. If you take a look for view of the guerillas put in YouTube by PKK, you could see how PKK constituted a children army.

The essential number of militants consists of children under the age of 18 at the scenes. It is very hard to find people over 30 among the rest. However the leader cadre is always composed of 50-60 years old people.

***It is asserted that there are 20 million Kurdish people in Turkey. If the PKK is at the mountains for the sake of Kurdish rights then why only children are at the mountains to fight over this 20 million Kurdish people? Is not this situation weird? How many children will lose their future in order to save the PKK leaders at their 60’s? Can a person even a terrorist be that morally corrupted to hide behind children in order to shoot?


It is obvious that PKK is not only pushing Turkey and the region into misery but also the Kurdish children. If PKK really wants wellbeing of Kurdish people, it must say goodbye to the weapons even only for these children victims.

4 November 2010

Sunday 7 November 2010

U.S. Human Rights abuses

Beyond the WikiLeaks Files: Dismantling the Iraqi State

Beyond the WikiLeaks Files: Dismantling the Iraqi State
Friday 05 November 2010

by: Dirk Adriaensens, t r u t h o u t Op-Ed

The United Nation's Human Rights Council in Geneva reviews the human rights record of the United States on November 5, 2010, on the occasion of the Ninth Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), November 1 to 12, 2010.

The following is an edited version of the presentation given by Dirk Adriaensens in Geneva on November 3.


Just days after the devastating attacks of 9/11, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz declared that a major focus of US foreign policy would be "ending states that sponsor terrorism." Iraq was labeled a "terrorist state" targeted for termination. President Bush went on to declare Iraq the major front of the global war on terror. US forces invaded the country illegally with the express aim of dismantling the Iraqi state.

After World War II, the social sciences focused on state-building and development models. Little has been written about state destruction and de-development. We can now, after seven years of war and occupation, state for certain that state ending was a deliberate policy objective.


The consequences in human and cultural terms of the destruction of the Iraqi state have been enormous: notably the death of over 1.3 million civilians; the degradation in social infrastructure, including electricity, potable water and sewage systems; over eight million Iraqis are in need of humanitarian assistance; abject poverty: the UN Human rights report for the first quarter of 2007 found that 54 percent of Iraqis were living on less than $1 a day; the displacement of minimum 2.5 million refugees and 2,764,000 internally displaced people as to end 2009. One in six Iraqis is displaced. Ethnic and religious minorities are on the verge of extinction.

UN-HABITAT, an agency of the United Nations, published a 218-page report entitled "State of the World's Cities, 2010-2011." Prior to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the percentage of the urban population living in slums in Iraq hovered just below 20 percent. Today, that percentage has risen to 53 percent: 11 million of the 19 million total urban dwellers.

Destroying Iraqi Education
The UNESCO report "Education Under Attack 2010 - Iraq," dated 10 February, 2010, concludes: "Although overall security in Iraq had improved, the situation faced by schools, students, teachers and academics remained dangerous." The director of the United Nations University International Leadership Institute published a report on 27 April, 2005, detailing that since the start of the war in 2003, some 84 percent of Iraq's higher education institutions have been burnt, looted or destroyed. Ongoing violence has destroyed school buildings and around a quarter of all Iraq's primary schools need major rehabilitation. Since March 2003, more than 700 primary schools have been bombed, 200 have been burnt and over 3,000 looted.

The population of teachers in Baghdad has fallen by 80 percent. Between March 2003 and October 2008, 31,598 violent attacks against educational institutions were reported in Iraq, according to the Ministry of Education (MoE).

Since 2007, bombings at Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad have killed or maimed more than 335 students and staff members, according to a 19 October, 2009, New York Times article, and a 12-foot-high blast wall has been built around the campus. MNF-I, the Iraqi Army and Iraqi police units, occupied more than 70 school buildings for military purposes in the Diyala governorate alone, in clear violation of The Hague Conventions.

The UNESCO report is very clear: "Attacks on education targets continued throughout 2007 and 2008 at a lower rate - but one that would cause serious concern in any other country." Why didn't it cause serious concern when it comes to Iraq? And the attacks are on the rise again, an increase of 50 percent, as these statistics show:

Murdered Academics (source: BRussells Tribunal)
Date unknown - 115 killed in 2003-2005
2003 - 16
2004 - 36
2005 - 65
2006 - 113
2007 - 63
2008 - 19
2009 - 10
2010 - 16 (until 15 October 2010)

Murdered Media Professionals (source: BRussells Tribunal)
2003 - 26 (6 Iraqis)
2004 - 59 (53 Iraqis)
2005 - 59 (58 Iraqis)
2006 - 90 (88 Iraqis)
2007 - 82 (81 Iraqis)
2008 - 19 (19 Iraqis)
2009 - 8 (8 Iraqis)
2010 - 12 (12 Iraqis) (until 15 October 2010)
(On the March 20, 2008, Reporters Without Borders reported that hundreds of journalists had been forced into exile since the start of the US-led invasion.)

Eliminating the Iraqi Middle Class
Parallel to the destruction of Iraq's educational infrastructure, this repression has led to the mass forced displacement of the bulk of Iraq's educated middle class - the main engine of progress and development in modern states. Iraq's intellectual and technical class has been subject to a systematic and ongoing campaign of intimidation, abduction, extortion, random killings and targeted assassinations.

The decimation of professional ranks took place in the context of a generalized assault on Iraq's professional middle class, including doctors, engineers, lawyers and judges as well as political and religious leaders. Roughly 40 percent of Iraq's middle class is believed to have fled by the end of 2006. Few have returned. Up to 75 percent of Iraq's doctors, pharmacists and nurses have left their jobs since the US-led invasion in 2003. More than half of those have emigrated. Twenty thousand of Iraq's 34,000 registered physicians left Iraq after the US invasion. As of April 2009, fewer than 2,000 returned, the same as the number who were killed during the course of the war.


To this date, there has been no systematic investigation of this phenomenon by the occupation authorities. Not a single arrest has been reported in regard to this terrorization of intellectuals. The inclination to treat this systematic assault on Iraqi professionals as somehow inconsequential is consistent with the occupation powers' more general role in the decapitation of Iraqi society.


Destroying Iraqi Culture and Erasing Collective Memory
All these terrible losses are compounded by unprecedented levels of cultural devastation, attacks on national archives and monuments that represent the historical identity of the Iraqi people. On America's watch, we now know that thousands of cultural artifacts disappeared during "Operation Iraqi Freedom." These objects included no less that 15.000 invaluable Mesopotamian artifacts from the National Museum in Baghdad and many others from the 12.000 archaeological sites that the occupation forces left unguarded. While the museum was robbed of its historical collection, the National Library that preserved the continuity and pride of Iraqi history was deliberately destroyed. Occupation authorities took no effective measures to protect important cultural sites, despite warnings by international specialists.

According to a recent update on the number of stolen artifacts by Francis Deblauwe, an archaeologist expert on Iraq, it appears that no less than 8,500 objects are still missing, in addition to 4,000 artifacts said to be recovered abroad, but not yet returned to Iraq. The smuggling and trade of Iraqi antiquities has become one of the most profitable businesses in contemporary Iraq.


The attitude of the US-led forces to this pillage has been, at best, indifference. The failure of the US to carry out its responsibilities under international law to take positive and protective actions was compounded by egregious direct actions that severely damaged the Iraqi cultural heritage. Since the invasion in March 2003, the US-led forces have transformed at least seven historical sites into bases or camps for the military, including Ur, one of the most ancient cities of the world and birthplace of Abraham, as well as the storied city of Babylon, where a US military camp has irreparably damaged the ancient site.


Destroying the Iraqi State
Rampant chaos and violence hamper efforts at reconstruction, leaving the foundations of the Iraqi state in ruins. The majority of Western journalists, academics and political figures have refused to recognize the loss of life on such a massive scale and the cultural destruction that accompanied it as the fully predictable consequences of American occupation policy. The very idea is considered unthinkable, despite the openness with which this objective was pursued.


It is time to think the unthinkable. The American-led assault on Iraq forces us to consider the meaning and consequences of state destruction as a policy objective. The architects of the Iraq policy never made explicit what deconstructing and reconstructing the Iraqi state would entail; their actions, however, make the meaning clear. From those actions in Iraq, a fairly precise definition of state termination can be read. The campaign to destroy the state of Iraq involved, first, the removal and execution of the legal head of state, Saddam Hussein, and the capture and expulsion of Baath figures.

However, state destruction went beyond regime change. It also entailed the purposeful dismantling of major state institutions and the launching of a prolonged process of political reshaping.


Bremer's 100 orders turned Iraq into a giant free-market paradise, but a hellish nightmare for Iraqis. The occupiers colonized the country for capital - pillage on the grandest scale. New economic laws instituted low taxes, 100 percent foreign investor ownership of Iraqi assets, the right to expropriate all profits, unrestricted imports and long-term 30-40 year deals and leases, dispossessing Iraqis of their own resources.


This desecration of the past and undermining of contemporary social gains is now giving way in occupied Iraq to the destruction of a meaningful future. Iraq is being handed over to the disintegrative forces of sectarianism and regionalism. Iraqis, stripped of their shared heritage and living today in the ruins of contemporary social institutions that sustained a coherent and unified society, are now bombarded by the forces of civil war, social and religious atavism and widespread criminality. Iraqi nationalism that had emerged through a prolonged process of state building and social interaction is now routinely disparaged. The regime installed by occupation forces in Iraq reshaped the country along divisive sectarian lines, dissolving the hard-won unity of a long state-building project.

Dominant narratives now falsely claim that sectarianism and ethnic chauvinism have always been the basis of Iraqi society, recycling yet again the persistent and destructive myth of age-old conflicts with no resolution and for which the conquerors bear no responsibility.

Contemporary Iraq represents a fragmented pastiche of sectarian forces with the formal trappings of liberal democracy and neoliberal economic structures. We call this the divide-and-rule technique, used to fracture and subdue culturally cohesive regions. This reshaping of the Iraqi state resulted in a policy of ethnic cleansing, partially revealed by the WikiLeaks files.


The WikiLeaks Documents
The WikiLeaks documents first made public on October 22, 2010, show how the US military gave a secret order not to investigate torture by Iraqi authorities discovered by American troops.


The data also reveal how hundreds of civilians were killed by coalition forces in unreported events, how hundreds of Iraqi civilians - pregnant women, elderly people and children - were shot at checkpoints.


There are numerous claims of prison abuse by coalition forces, even after the Abu Ghraib scandal. The files also paint a grim picture of widespread torture in Iraqi detention facilities. Two revelations await the reader of the WikiLeaks section dealing with civilian deaths in the Iraq war: Iraqis are responsible for most of these deaths and the number of total civilian casualties is substantially higher than has been previously reported.


The documents record a descent into chaos and horror as the country plunged into so-called "civil war." The logs also record thousands of bodies, many brutally tortured, dumped on the streets of Iraq.


Through the WikiLeaks files, we can see the impact the war had on Iraqi men, women and children. The sheer scale of the deaths, detentions and violence is here officially acknowledged for the first time.


A thorough research of these documents will give us a further insight into the atrocities committed in Iraq. The WikiLeaks logs can serve as evidence in courts. They are important material for lawyers to file charges against the US for negligence and responsibility for the killing of thousands. A fair compensation for the families of the victims and the recognition of their suffering can help to heal the wounds. In the first official US State Department response to the massive WikiLeaks release of these classified Iraq war documents, spokesman P.J. Crowley shrugged off the evidence that US troops were ordered to cover up detainee abuse by the Iraqi government, insisting the abuse wasn't America's problem. This response is infuriating. The perpetrators of this violence and those who ordered the soldiers to turn a blind eye when being confronted with torture and extrajudicial killings should be convicted for war crimes. The US and UK forces and governments clearly refused to fulfill their obligations under international law as a de facto occupying power.


However, these logs reveal only the "SIGACT's or Significant Actions in the war as told by soldiers in the United States Army": the reports of the "regular" US troops. The logs contain nothing new, they merely confirm and make official what the Iraqis and unembedded Western observers have been trying to convey to the public for years. While all of the press is now reporting the WikiLeaks story, few media outlets are going back to their own coverage and acknowledging how they have failed to honestly report the crimes.


What these 400.000 documents do not reveal is the US involvement of "irregular troops" in Special Operations, counterinsurgency war and death squad activities. When will the documents of the "dirty war" be revealed? The BRussells Tribunal, monitoring this horrendous invasion and occupation since 2003, is convinced that the leaked logs only scratch the surface of the catastrophic war in Iraq. What we can extract from the WikiLeaks documents is only the tip of the iceberg. It is time to take a dive into the troubled waters of the Iraq war and try to explore the hidden part of the iceberg.


Ethnic Cleansing
It became clear after the invasion in 2003 that the Iraqi exile groups were to play an important role in the violent response to dissent in occupied Iraq. Already on January 1, 2004, it was reported that the US government planned to create paramilitary units comprised of militiamen from Iraqi Kurdish and exile groups, including the Badr brigades, the Iraqi National Congress and the Iraqi National Accord, to wage a campaign of terror and extrajudicial killing, similar to the Phoenix program in Vietnam: the terror and assassination campaign that killed tens of thousands of civilians.


The $87 billion supplemental appropriation for the war in November 2003 included $3 billion for a classified program, funds that would be used for the paramilitaries for the next three years. Over that period, the news from Iraq gradually came to be dominated by reports of death squads and ethnic cleansing, described in the press as "sectarian violence," that was used as the new central narrative of the war and the principal justification for continued occupation. Some of the violence may have been spontaneous, but there is overwhelming evidence that most of it was the result of the plans described by several American experts in December 2003.


Despite subsequent American efforts to distance US policy from the horrific results of this campaign, it was launched with the full support of conservative opinion makers in the USA, a Wall Street Journal editorial even declaring that, "The Kurds and the INC have excellent intelligence operations that we should allow them to exploit ... especially to conduct counterinsurgency in the Sunny
Triangle."


The Salvador Option
In January 2005, more than a year after the first reports about the Pentagon's planning for assassinations and paramilitary operations emerged, the "Salvador Option" hit the pages of Newsweek and other major news outlets. The outsourcing of state terrorism to local proxy forces was regarded as a key component of a policy that had succeeded in preventing the total defeat of the US-backed government in El Salvador. Pentagon-hired mercenaries, like Dyncorp, helped form the sectarian militias that were used to terrorize and kill Iraqis and to provoke Iraq into civil war.

In 2004, two senior US Army officers published a favorable review of the American proxy war in Colombia: "Presidents Reagan and Bush supported a small, limited war while trying to keep US military involvement a secret from the American public and media. Present US policy toward Colombia appears to follow this same disguised, quiet, media-free approach."


It reveals the fundamental nature of dirty war, as in Latin America and the worst excesses of the Vietnam War. The purpose of dirty war is not to identify and then detain or kill actual resistance fighters. The target of dirty war is the civilian population. It is a strategy of state terrorism and collective punishment against an entire population with the objective of terrorizing it into submission. The same tactics used in Central America and Colombia were exported to Iraq. Even the architects of these dirty wars in El Salvador (Ambassador John Negroponte and James Steele) and in Colombia (Steven Casteel) were transferred to Iraq to do the same dirty work. They recruited, trained and deployed the notorious "Special Police Commandos," into which death squads like the Badr Brigades and other militias were incorporated later, in 2006. US forces set up a high-tech operations center for the Special Police Commandos at an "undisclosed location" in Iraq. American technicians installed satellite telephones and computers with uplinks to the Internet and US forces Networks. The command center had direct connections to the Iraqi Interior Ministry and to every US forward operating base in the country.


As news of atrocities by these forces in Iraq hit the newsstands in 2005, Casteel would play a critical role in blaming extrajudicial killings on "insurgents" with stolen police uniforms, vehicles and weapons. He also claimed that torture centers were run by rogue elements of the Interior Ministry, even as accounts came to light of torture taking place inside the ministry headquarters where he and other Americans worked. US advisers to the Interior Ministry had their offices on the eighth floor, directly above a jail on the seventh floor where torture was taking place.


The uncritical attitude of the Western media to American officials like Steven Casteel prevented a worldwide popular and diplomatic outcry over the massive escalation of the dirty war in Iraq in 2005 and 2006, consistent with the "disguised, quiet, media-free approach" mentioned before. As the Newsweek story broke in January 2005, General Downing, the former head of US Special Forces, appeared on NBC. He said: "This is under control of the US forces, of the current Interim Iraqi government. There's no need to think that we're going to have any kind of killing campaign that's going to maim innocent civilians." Within months, Iraq was swept by exactly that kind of a killing campaign. This campaign has led to arbitrary detention, torture, extrajudicial executions and the mass exodus and internal displacement of millions.

Thousands of Iraqis disappeared during the worst days of this dirty war between 2005 and 2007. Some were seen picked up by uniformed militias and piled into lorries, others simply seemed to vanish. Iraq's Minister of Human Rights Wijdan Mikhail said that her ministry had received more than 9,000 complaints in 2005 and 2006 alone from Iraqis who said a relative had disappeared. Human rights groups put the total number much higher. The fate of many missing Iraqis remains unknown. Many are languishing in one of Iraq's notoriously secretive prisons.


Journalist Dr. Yasser Salihee was killed on June 24th, 2005, by an American sniper, purportedly "accidentally." Three days after his death, Knight Ridder published a report on his investigation into the Special Police Commandos and their links to torture, extrajudicial killings and disappearances in Baghdad. Salihee and his colleagues investigated at least 30 separate cases of abductions leading to torture and death. In every case, witnesses gave consistent accounts of raids by large numbers of police commandos in uniform, in clearly marked police vehicles, with police weapons and bullet-proof vests. And in every case, the detained were later found dead, with almost identical signs of torture and they were usually killed by a single gunshot to the head.


The effect of simply not pointing out the connection between the US and the Iranian-backed Badr Brigade militia, the US-backed Wolf Brigade and other Special Police Commando units, or the extent of American recruitment, training, command and control of these units, was far-reaching. It distorted perceptions of events in Iraq throughout the ensuing escalation of the war, creating the impression of senseless violence initiated by the Iraqis themselves and concealing the American hand in the planning and execution of the most savage forms of violence. By providing cover for the crimes committed by the US government, news editors played a significant role in avoiding the public outrage that might have discouraged the further escalation of this campaign.


The precise extent of US complicity in different aspects and phases of death squad operations, torture and disappearances, deserves thorough investigation. It is not credible that American officials were simply innocent bystanders to thousands of these incidents. As frequently pointed out by Iraqi observers, Interior Ministry death squads moved unhindered through American as well as Iraqi checkpoints as they detained, tortured and killed thousands of people.


As in other countries where US forces have engaged in what they refer to as "counterinsurgency," American military and intelligence officials recruited, trained, equipped and directed local forces, which engaged in a campaign of state-sponsored terror against the overwhelming proportion of the local population who continued to reject and oppose the invasion and occupation of their country.
The degree of US initiative in the recruitment, training, equipping, deployment, command and control of the Special Police Commandos made it clear that American trainers and commanders established the parameters within which these forces operated. Many Iraqis and Iranians were certainly guilty of terrible crimes in the conduct of this campaign. But the prime responsibility for this policy and for the crimes it involved, rests with the individuals in the civilian and military command structure of the US Department of Defense, the CIA and the White House who devised, approved and implemented the "Phoenix" or "Salvador" terror policy in Iraq.


The report of the Human Rights Office of UNAMI, issued on September 8th, 2005, written by John Pace was very explicit, linking the campaign of detentions, torture and extrajudicial executions directly to the Interior Ministry and indirectly to the US-led Multi-National Forces.


The final UN Human Rights Report of 2006 described the consequences of these policies for the people of Baghdad, while downplaying their institutional roots in American policy. The "sectarian violence" that engulfed Iraq in 2006 was not an unintended consequence of the US invasion and occupation, but an integral part of it. The United States did not just fail to restore stability and security to Iraq. It deliberately undermined them in a desperate effort to "divide and rule" the country and to fabricate new justifications for unlimited violence against Iraqis who continued to reject the illegal invasion and occupation of their country.

The nature and extent of involvement of different individuals and groups within the US occupation structure has remained a dirty, dark secret, but there are many leads that could be followed by any serious inquiry.


The Surge
In January 2007, the US government announced a new strategy, the "surge" of US combat troops in Baghdad and Anbar province. Most Iraqis reported that this escalation of violence made living conditions even worse than before, as its effects were added to the accumulated devastation of four years of war and occupation. The UN Human Rights Report for the first quarter of 2007 gave a description of the dire conditions of the Iraqi people. The violence of the surge resulted in a further 22 percent reduction of the number of doctors, leaving only 15,500 out of an original 34,000 by September 2008. The number of refugees and internally displaced rose sharply during the period 2007-2008.


Since Interior Ministry forces under US command were responsible for a large part of the extrajudicial killings, the occupation authorities had the power to reduce or increase the scale of these atrocities more or less on command. So, a reduction in the killings with the launch of the "security plan" should not have been difficult to achieve. In fact, a small reduction in violence seems to have served an important propaganda role for a period until the death squads got back to work, supported by the new American offensive.


The escalation of American firepower in 2007, including a five-fold increase in airstrikes and the use of Spectre gunships and artillery in addition to the surge was intended as a devastating climax to the past four years of war and collective punishment inflicted upon the Iraqi people. All resistance-held areas would be targeted with overwhelming fire power, mainly from the air, until the US ground forces could build walls around what remained of each neighborhood and isolate each district. It's worth mentioning that General Petraeus compared the hostilities in Ramadi with the Battle of Stalingrad without qualms about adopting the role of the German invaders in this analogy. Ramadi was completely destroyed, as was Fallujah in November 2004.


The UN Human Rights reports of 2007 mentioned the indiscriminate and illegal attacks against civilians and civilian areas and asked for investigations. Air strikes continued on an almost daily basis until August 2008 even as the so-called "sectarian violence" and US casualties declined. In all the reported incidents where civilians, women and children were killed, the Centcom press office declared that the people killed were "terrorists," "Al Qaeda militants" or "involuntary human shields." Of course, when military forces are illegally ordered to attack civilian areas, many people will try to defend themselves, especially if they know that the failure to do so may result in arbitrary detention, abuse, torture, or summary execution for themselves or their relatives.


Forces Involved in "Special Operations"
Another aspect of the surge or escalation appears to have been an increase in the use of American Special Forces assassination teams. In April 2008, President Bush declared: "As we speak, US Special Forces are launching multiple operations every night to capture or kill Al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq." The New York Times reported on 13 May, 2009: "When General Stanley McChrystal took over the Joint Special Operations Command in 2003, he inherited an insular, shadowy commando force with a reputation for spurning partnerships with other military and intelligence organizations. But over the next five years he worked hard, his colleagues say, to build close relationships with the CIA and the FBI ... In Iraq, where he oversaw secret commando operations for five years, former intelligence officials say that he had an encyclopedic, even obsessive, knowledge about the lives of terrorists and that he pushed his ranks aggressively to kill as many of them as possible.... Most of what General McChrystal has done over a 33-year career remains classified, including service between 2003 and 2008 as commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, an elite unit so clandestine that the Pentagon for years refused to acknowledge its existence." The secrecy surrounding these operations prevented more widespread reporting, but as with earlier US covert operations in Vietnam and Latin America, we will learn more about these operations over time.


An article in the Sunday Telegraph in February 2007 pointed towards clear evidence British Special Forces recruited and trained terrorists in the Green Zone to heighten ethnic tensions. An elite SAS wing, called "Task Force Black," with a bloody past in Northern Ireland, operates with immunity and provides advanced explosives. Some attacks are being blamed on Iranians, Sunni insurgents or shadowy terrorist cells such as al-Qaeda.


SWAT teams (Special Weapons and Tactics) were extensively used in counterinsurgency operations. The mission of SWAT is to conduct high-risk operations that fall outside the abilities of regular patrol officers to prevent, deter and respond to terrorism and insurgent activities. It was reported that, "The foreign internal defense partnership with Coalition Soldiers establishes a professional relationship between the Iraqi Security and Coalition forces where the training builds capable forces. Coalition soldiers working side-by-side with the SWAT teams, both in training and on missions." On 7 October, 2010, the official web site for US Forces in Iraq reported, "The Basrah SWAT team has trained with various Special Forces units, including the Navy SEALs and the British SAS.

The 1st Bn., 68th Arm. Regt., currently under the operational control of United States Division-South and the 1st Infantry Division, has taken up the task of teaching the SWAT team."


Facilities protection services, where "private contractors" or mercenaries such as Blackwater are incorporated, are also used in counterinsurgency operations.
Iraq Special Operations Forces (ISOF), probably the largest special forces outfit ever built by the United States, free of many of the controls that most governments employ to rein in such lethal forces. The project started in Jordan just after the Americans conquered Baghdad in April 2003, to create a deadly, elite, covert unit, fully fitted with American equipment, which would operate for years under US command and be unaccountable to Iraqi ministries and the normal political process. According to Congressional records, the ISOF has grown into nine battalions, which extend to four regional "commando bases" across Iraq. By December 2009 they were fully operational, each with its own "intelligence infusion cell," which will operate independently of Iraq's other intelligence networks.

The ISOF is at least 4,564 operatives strong, making it approximately the size of the US Army's own Special Forces in Iraq. Congressional records indicate that there are plans to double the ISOF over the next "several years."


In conclusion, the dirty war in Iraq continues. Even as President Barack Obama was announcing the end of combat in Iraq, US forces were still fighting alongside their Iraqi colleagues. The tasks of the 50,000 remaining US troops, 5,800 of them airmen, are "advising" and training the Iraqi Army, "providing security" and carrying out "counterterrorism" missions.


According to the UN Human Rights report, upon a request for clarification by UNAMI, the MNF confirmed that "the US government continued to regard the conflict in Iraq as an international armed conflict, with procedures currently in force consistent with the 4th Geneva Convention" and that the civil rights of Iraqis should not be governed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other human rights laws, because this would have strengthened the rights of Iraqis detained by US or Iraqi forces to speedy and fair trials. The admission that the US was still engaged in an "international armed conflict" against Iraq at the end of 2007 also raises serious questions regarding the legality of constitutional and political changes made in Iraq by the occupation forces and their installed government during the war and occupation.


Legitimizing Torture
When the public revelations of abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib prison created a brief furor in the world, the ICRC, Human Rights First, AI, HRW, and other human rights groups documented far more widespread and systematic crimes committed by US forces against people they extrajudicially detained in Iraq. In numerous human rights reports, they established that command responsibility for these crimes extended to the highest levels of the US government and its armed forces.


The forms of torture documented in these reports included death threats; mock executions; waterboarding; stress positions, including excruciating and sometimes deadly forms of hanging; hypothermia; sleep deprivation; starvation and thirst; withholding medical treatment; electric shocks; various forms of rape and sodomy; endless beatings; burning; cutting with knives; injurious use of flexicuffs; suffocation; sensory assault and/or deprivation; and more psychological forms of torture such as sexual humiliation and the detention and torture of family members.


The ICRC established that the violations of international humanitarian law that it recorded were systematic and widespread. Military officers told the ICRC that, "between 70 percent and 90 percent of the persons deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake."


All these facts are well known, however only the lower ranks in the Army were mildly punished. The "Command's Responsibility" report revealed that the failure to charge higher ranking officers was the direct result of the "key role" that some same officers played "in undermining chances for full accountability." By delaying and undermining investigations of deaths in their custody, senior officers compounded their own criminal responsibility in a common pattern of torture, murder and obstruction of justice. Senior officers abused the enormous power they wield in the military command structure to place themselves beyond the reach of law, even as they gave orders to commit terrible crimes. It was in recognition of the potential for exactly this type of criminal behavior that the Geneva Conventions were drafted and signed in the first place and that is why they are just as vital today.


Nevertheless, the responsibility for these crimes is not limited to the US Army. The public record also includes documents in which senior civilian officials of the US government approved violations of the Geneva Conventions, the 1994 Convention Against Torture and the 1996 US War Crimes Act. The United States government should, thus, be held accountable for this terrible tragedy it inflicted upon millions of Iraqi citizens and should be forced to pay appropriate compensations to the victims of its criminal policy in Iraq.


Recommendations

We learned that, on Tuesday the 26th of October, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged Iraq and the United States to investigate allegations of torture and unlawful killings in the Iraq conflict revealed in the WikiLeaks documents. We are very surprised by this statement. Does the high commissioner think it is appropriate for criminals to investigate their own crimes? Wijdan Mikhail, the Iraqi minister of human rights in Iraq, has called for putting Julian Assange on trial instead of investigating the crimes. And since the Obama administration has shown no desire to expose any of the crimes committed by US officials in Iraq, an international investigation under the auspices of the high commissioner of human rights is necessary. Different Special Rapporteurs should be involved: i.e. the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism; and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. A Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iraq should be urgently appointed.


Although the UN did not authorize the invasion of Iraq, it did "legalize" the occupation a posteriori in UNSC resolution 1483 (22 May, 2003), against the will of the overwhelming majority of the world community which did not accept the legality or the legitimacy of that UN resolution. And it was during the occupation that the war crimes brought to light by WikiLeaks took place. Like the US, the UN has the moral and legal duty to respond.


The world community has the right to know the complete and unbiased truth about the extent and responsibilities of American involvement in Iraq's killing fields and demands justice for the Iraqi people.


We appeal to all states to ask the US about all these crimes against the Iraqi people during the UPR on the 5th of November.


We also demand that procedures be set up to compensate the Iraqi people and Iraq as a nation for all the losses, human and material destruction and damages caused by the illegal war and the occupation of the country lead by the US/UK forces.


Note: This presentation contains information available in the public domain: it is compiled of several official reports, press articles, BRussells Tribunal witness accounts, Max Fuller's articles on the counterinsurgency war and two books:
"Cultural Cleansing in Iraq," of which Dirk Adriaensens is co-author (Pluto Press, London, ISBN-10: 0745328121, ISBN-13: 978-0745328126) and "Blood On Our Hands, The American Invasion And Destruction Of Iraq," written by Nicolas J.S. Davies. (Nimble Books LLC, ISBN-10: 193484098X, ISBN-13: 978-1934840986).
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Background
The Universal Periodic Review: "Reviewing Human Rights Violations of the United States by NGOS" (November 2010)
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was established to undertake a review of the fulfillment by each State of its obligations and commitment under international Human Rights Law taking in account the Human Rights obligations of States as set out in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Humanitarian Law in a manner to prompt, support and expand the promotion and protection of Human Rights around the world.

This event is proposed to encourage states to raise questions during the ninth session of the UPR concerning human rights violations by the United States outside its territory, especially in Iraq, Afghanistan.

The United States are still present in Iraq and Afghanistan, exercising actual control, through its and its allies' forces, or through the private companies, therefore, it is under obligation to protect the civilians in these countries and
maintain public order and safety.

It is unfortunate that the reports compiled by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights failed to take into account violations that occurred outside the US territory. It sets a regrettable precedent that should not be ignored.

Hence, we believe that these violations must be addressed during the Universal Periodic Review of the United States, in order to respect the real goals of this mechanism.

For the above mentioned reasons a group of NGOs is going to organize a meeting to allow the NGOs to do their own review to the violations of the United States and encourage states to take this review in their account during the official review on the 5th of November 2010.

UN experts, specialist from the Middle East and victims from Iraq and USA are supposed to address the event.
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The Ninth Session of the Universal Periodic Review: The Extra-Territorial Application of Human Rights
Reviewing the Human Rights Record of the United States of America (UN - Geneva November 3, 2010, 11.00h-17.00h)

The United States' human rights record will be reviewed by the Human Rights Council during the Ninth Session of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) being held in Geneva from 1 to 12 November, 2010. The United States will be reviewed on the morning of Friday, 5 November.

The UPR was established to undertake a review of the each States obligations and commitments under international human rights law taking in account the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Humanitarian Law in a manner that prompts, supports and expands the promotion and protection of human rights.


NGOs are not allowed to speak during the official session, but they can exercise influence by bringing relevant information to the attention of States. It is for this reasons that a coalition of NGOs have organized a side event on Wednesday, 3 November, 2010, at the site of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. At this event, prominent human rights defenders familiar with the situation of human rights in the United States will speak and NGOs and other observers will have the opportunity to submit information relevant to the review of the human rights record of the United States. The focus will be on extra-territorial violations of human rights, namely in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

Among the speaker will be:

• Mr. Ramsey Clark, 66th United States attorney general
• Mr. Dirk Adriaensens, BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee
• Prof. Alfred De Zayas, US attorney and professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations
• Prof. Curtis Doebbler, American international human rights lawyer and representative of the NGO Nord-Sud XXI
• Mr. Sabah Al-Mukhtar, president of the Arab Lawyers Network in the United Kingdom
• Dr. Aziz Al- Qazaz, Iraqi human rights defender
• Mr. Jose del-Prado, member of the UN Human Rights Council's Working Group on Mercenaries

142 Iraqi detainee abuse cases reach High Court

Public Interest Lawyers

PIL, November 6, 2010 Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) are acting for 142 Iraqi civilians who complain that at various times and in different UK facilities during the period March 2003 to December 2008, UK soldiers and interrogators subjected them to torture and to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. All of the cases concern allegations of abuse inside UK military facilities in Iraq.

The Lead Claimant, Ali Zaki Mousa, brings a case on behalf of all the men. It is being heard by a Court of Appeal Judge, Richards LJ, and a High Court Judge, Mr Justice Silber, on 5, 8 and 9 November 2010 at the Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London.

The Baha Mousa Inquiry has concluded its oral hearings and the Report is due in early 2011. A second inquiry into how the UK Armed Forces behaved in Iraq, the Al Sweady Inquiry, is due to start its oral hearings in 2011. The Ali Zaki Mousa case argues that there must now be a single inquiry into the UK’s detention policy in South East Iraq. The alternative is to allow the MoD to argue out each and every case which at the rate it says it can deal with cases one at a time and one a year will take 142 years (assuming that no new cases come forward in the meantime).

The Iraqi victims complain of many practices and techniques that have not been examined at all during the Baha Mousa Inquiry and include:

- Forcednakedness, including keeping Iraqis naked if they did not cooperate withinterrogators;

- Sexual abuses, including rape, forced oral sex, forced adoption of prolonged oral and anal simulated sex positions, soldiers masturbating on Iraqis, female and male soldiers having sex in front of the Iraqis, playing loud, hardcore pornographic movies all night during Ramadan and many other troubling allegations of a sexual nature;

- Foodand water deprivation as a means of "softening-up" Iraqis for interrogation;

- Prolonged solitary confinement;

- Sleep deprivation;

- Mockexecutions;

- "Harshing", including screaming insults and threats into the faces of Iraqis from close range;

- Systematicuse of sensory deprivation, including hoods/double hoods, blacked-out goggles, and earmuffs;

- Threats to rape Iraqis’ wives and daughters in front of them; and

- Abuse of women and children at arrest operations in homes.

Phil Shiner of PIL said:

"This case raises a number of very troubling systemic issues about the practices and techniques used on Iraqis by soldiers and interrogators. Even the MoD now concedes that its previous protestations about a "few bad apples" and "isolated incidents" is patent nonsense. The question for the Court to decide comes down not to whether there should now be a single inquiry into the UK’s detention policy in Iraq, but when it should be set up. The MoD want to kick all of this into the long grass. Our clients are entitled to a proper inquiry into all of these cases now, not in several years time when all the evidence will be lost or forgotten."

Mazin Younis, Advisor for the Iraqi Rabita (League), added:

"Since my first trip to Basra in 2004 to meet a handful of Iraqis claiming to have been abused by British soldiers, the list of claimants has shot up dramatically. The similarities in allegations of abuse that took place between 2003 and 2008, when thousands of British soldiers had served from different units and in many headquarters, are really astonishing. These similarities may reveal a systematic policy of abuse issued by officers high up in the command chain, and may reveal immunity guaranteed to soldiers to mistreat Iraqis the way they liked with no fear of accountability.

At this very moment, more than 60 new cases have flooded in from southern Iraq; we dont know yet what kinds of abuse they will be revealing. Iraqis have been waiting for a long time for their voices to be heard and for justice to be restored. The only way that we can handle the current and future claims of abuse made by Iraqis is through a single inquiry. Iraqis will be eagerly awaiting the outcome of this hearing."

There will be a press conference at 9.45am on Friday 5 November at the front entrance to the Royal Courts of Justice. Those present will include Phil Shiner and Mazin Younis. It has not been possible to arrange for the client himself, Ali Zaki Mousa, to be present but a statement on his behalf will be read out by Mazin Younis.

For further information, please contact:
Phil Shiner on 0121 515 5069 / 07715485 248
Daniel Carey on 07815 089 526
Sam Jacobs on 07762 278234
Paul McNab on 07577 642374
Mazin Younis on 0781118862
www.publicinterestlawyers.co.uk/news_details.php?id=20

Saturday 6 November 2010

U.S. and Iran Prop Up Unconstitutional Gov in Iraq

Source: The Real News Network (TRNN)

Sahar Issa: Violence may break out against violation of election results in Iraq

For video please click on the link below

http://www.payvand.com/news/10/nov/1050.html


Kirkuk originally, the city of Kirkuk, had a majority of Turkomen population, and outside the city, on the borders of it, a majority of Kurds. And the rest of the province, and especially the western half of the province, is Arab tribes.

Transcript
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome back to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Washington. And joining us again is Sahar Issa. She works with the McClatchy bureau in Baghdad. She was also one of six women in 2007 that won the Women of Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation. Thanks for joining us.

SAHAR ISSA, BAGHDAD CORRESPONDENT, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS: Thank you.

JAY: So let's talk a bit about what's going on now politically in Iraq. Where do things stand in terms of forming an Iraqi government? Why don't we start there?

ISSA: It is a very difficult situation, because there is a stalemate. The stalemate, however, is not constitutional. In the end of last year and the beginning of this year, Iraqis were feeling a little bit more lighthearted. They were saying, okay, we have been through this ordeal, but elections are coming up. Perhaps we can take a hand after all in forming our future. Election day was for all-perhaps my colleagues in the media who have been there reporting remember the explosions, stun bombs, and smoke bombs, and firing in the air, not as much to kill the people as much as to frighten them away. It was amazing to me to see that people actually ventured out of their homes in hundreds of thousands and millions. They did. And at the end of the day, there was the result of the election: secular bloc, headed by Ayad Allawi, former prime minister in Iraq. And this secular bloc won by a very small margin of two seats. However, it was an election, and he won. The powers that were incumbent did not accept this.

JAY: Prime Minister Maliki.

ISSA: Maliki. And they have been trying now for more than seven months to turn the tables to remain in power. First there was a call for recount. That took three months, and the result of the recount was exactly as the result before the recount. That in itself must have been embarrassing. And after that, there is formation of a large group, coming together of parties, not being able to form an alliance that is accepted constitutionally. Even if Mr. Maliki, incumbent prime minister, were able to form a large alliance to gain the majority that will make him able, empower him to form a government, it will not be constitutional, because there was an election and a bloc won, and according to our constitution, it says the largest parliamentary bloc.

JAY: The underlying issue here for many of the forces in struggle in Iraq for power is enormous oil wealth, billions of dollars of oil already flowing. There's different sections of elites in different sections of the country representing, on the face of it, different ethnic groups and religious groups, but mostly it's a struggle over oil wealth. Give us just a little bit of a picture how these-who these different forces are and how it's playing out in the struggle to form a government.

ISSA: Oil wealth in Iraq is distributed along the border with Iran and to the south borders. So it is majorly in Kirkuk, which is the plain for struggle for the Kurdistan region, and it is also in Missan, which is to the south of that, and in Basra, which is the southernmost province in Iraq. The southern provinces are a majority of Shia, where very few Sunnis now live there. So there is no struggle that has to do with ethnic or sectarian background. However, the difference to that is in Kirkuk. Kirkuk originally, the city of Kirkuk, had a majority of Turkomen population, and outside the city, on the borders of it, a majority of Kurds. And the rest of the province, and especially the western half of the province, is Arab tribes. Saddam Hussein, in his time, because of the struggle with the Kurds, did not want to give them the upper hand in control in Kirkuk. Kurds were delicately and not so delicately pushed out of the province; and others, usually from the south of Iraq, they were given incentive to go there, that they would be given land, they would be given some capital to work with. Starting after 2003, the Kurds have been attempting to reverse this demographic change. Unfortunately for the people of Kirkuk, oil is not a blessing, it is a curse, because for others who are living outside the province it is simply a source of income.

JAY: Allawi won the election with a secular party by a couple of seats.

ISSA: Yes.

JAY: Maliki now, who doesn't want to hand over power, has he been able to create an alliance with the Sadrists? And, like, what's the shape of all of this? Because you have the Kurds in the struggle over Kirkuk. You have Sunnis, who Maliki seems to be wanting to push even further away from government in power. And we've heard in a recent report that many of the Sunnis that were involved in these Awakening councils that were supposed to be fighting the Al-Qaeda type elements have actually now gone back in joining the insurgency because they're being so cut out of power by Maliki. And you have Allawi in the secular party over here. And so where does all this head? And most importantly, is the US playing an important role in deciding who's going to be king or not?

ISSA: Maliki needs alliances to be able to say, I have a majority in the parliament. So far, he does not have that. It is amazing for me, personally, and for many observers, that the Sadrists overnight changed from considering him number one, perhaps, enemy of Sadrists to considering him an ally. They say, however, when we speak to them, that before the announcement, they say that Muqtada al-Sadr, their religious leader, that he is bearing up well under Iranian pressure. Overnight, it was announced that the Sadrists will back Maliki into the elections. And after the announcement, when we spoke to them again, they said, no, there were no pressures, and that no, there wasn't a deal cut. We must understand that for Sadrists, such a large number of Sadrists, especially in connection with Jaish al-Mahdi, or Mahdi Army, were detained by Maliki's government, detained, some of them tried, some of them convicted, and a lot of them still simply languishing in detention without knowing when they will be processed.

JAY: And Maliki led an attack on Sadr city that killed many of their people.

ISSA: Of course. Not just Sadr City. In Basra it was really big. And a lot of people thought that by doing this, Maliki was able to gain nationalist standing, so that he was not only hitting the other sect, but he was also hitting whoever is carrying arms in his own sect.

JAY: If you have a Sadr-Maliki deal of some kind, in some way brokered by Iran, where are the Americans in all this? 'Cause the Americans still seem to be supporting Maliki. And I guess a question I have is, if they actually preferred Allawi in the secular party, could they have done anything about it? Or is the US just focused on getting out? Or are they really focused on getting out, and do they actually have more long-term plans here?

ISSA: Thank you for this question. Maliki-especially Maliki, but the other parties also, were using propaganda against Allawi that he is the one who the US is supporting. But because after the elections things delayed so much, and the withdrawal date of handing over of combat operations from US forces to Iraqi forces came up, and a great withdrawal of American forces would leave the country in the hands of the Iraqi security and a smaller force of 50,000 American soldiers, I think, I believe, that the American administration felt that maybe the devil you know, at this stage, is better than the devil you don't know, a secular bloc coming to government at this time, where the majority of Shiites and the sectarian strife [sic]. And this situation can be an unknown value in the equation. Perhaps it has to do with considerations, as I told you. Because they are pulling out, they need to leave something a little bit more stable and not a question mark, on one side. But on another side, I would never have accredited that the US would, in a situation like this, where it is secular versus Islamist, to support the Islamists and give up on the secular. For me it is a strange situation.

JAY: And not just Islamists, but a government that seems to have as much connection to Iran as [inaudible] United States.

ISSA: Of course, of course.

JAY: So do Iraqis believe these 50,000 troops that are now called noncombat-but from we understand, the actual reality on the ground hasn't changed very much, has it?

ISSA: We don't often see American convoys in our streets anymore. However, in the belt around Baghdad they are active, and in what is called the disputed areas-and this is the buffer belt between Kurdistan region and the rest of Iraq. They are deployed there, officially deployed there in joint forces. This is Iraqi, Kurdish, and American. Until the dispute is over, one way or the other, I think they are committed to be there.

JAY: So that's the question. Do Iraqis believe the US is really getting out?

ISSA: I think Iraqis have begun to believe that the Americans are getting out militarily. However, their presence-I mean, US Embassy in Iraq has accommodations, I believe, for around 5,000 people. So their presence in the country need not be military. They say, we are training; they say, we are advising; they say, we are promoting. And so all these people are staying. I doubt very much if they will stay without ample protection from their military. How it's going to unfold and work out I don't really know. It is unsure. But Iraqis have not seen in modern history a country in which America got involved and actually left completely.

JAY: What is the dangers of another fairly full-scale civil war breaking out? Or do you think it will more or less stay at the kind of level of violence it's at now?

ISSA: Iraqis have had their bellyful of violence. A lot of the people simply do not want-they don't care what, they just don't want the violence to return. This is something-I don't know if it is good or bad, but for me I think it's good that they are not so quick to pick up arms anymore. But as I said formerly, if a government that was formed outside the auspices of our constitution, it will give rise to legitimate resistance, and there are many, many inside Iraq and outside Iraq who would take advantage of this to rile up the situation and make it come out to, I don't know, civil war-it won't be civil war, but it will be violence. It will be political violence. The parties would be killing each other.

JAY: By the US policy and Iranian policy of supporting a government that many people see as unconstitutional, it could be contributing to, actually, the conditions of more violence.

ISSA: It could be indeed. It could be indeed.

JAY: Thanks very much for joining us. And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network. For those of you that didn't see the first segment of this interview, and I urge you to go look at it, but just to explain, the reason we have been shooting Sahar this way, from the side so you can't see her face, is for security reasons, obviously. It's still very dangerous to be a journalist in Baghdad. Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.

End of Transcript
DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
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